12V Battery Drain...you don't use it you lose it.

[Bumble1978]

This is an EV Life word to the wise that hopefully someone waaaay smarter than me has figured out.

Simple fact of the matter is that in the 2011 Nissan Leaf, if either of the following two conditions are not met, your 12V Battery's CCA's and overall voltage will drop to about half :

1. Drive the car every day at least for a distance of 20 miles straight or 30 minutes.
2. Park outside.

Cause - 2011 Nissan Telematics constantly ping info servers draining the 12V.

My Lady and I just took our first flight since 2019, flew out Wednesday night returned Monday aternoon.

I forgot that last January I got a ProTip from a Nissan LEAF forum that if you don't drive your Leaf every day and/or park outside a lot you will be replacing your 12V all the time.

Solutions Assuming you park under cover or in a garage:
A. Throw a trickle charger on the Leaf before you go.
B. Unplug the - from your 12V before you go.
C. Remember A. and/or B. over a year later.

Can someone with a more recently made EV please confirm that this is no longer an issue because they quickly figured out that this is a huge annoyance?!? Guessing the quick fix was improving Telematics to not ping all the time when it's not needed.

Wait never mind...just remembered Bjorn Nyland's Vampire Drain tests after leaving his car at the airport for one month. Tesla must have fixed it.

Turns out I just needed to vent while my leaf sits in the garage, hood up and a hole where the 12V belongs, waiting for my local battery shop to charge or replace my 12V. ?‍ ???

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[CommodoreAmiga]

I wouldn't assume that problems plaguing Nissan affect anyone else.

People park their other EVs for days at a time, in garages, and there are no ill-effects.

Nissan is referred to as the "Chrysler of Japan" for a reason.

 

[skyote]

@Bumble1978 , forgive my ignorance, but what does daily driving or parking outside have to do with charging the 12V?

Does the Leaf have solar panels for 12V charging or something akin to an alternator?

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

@Bumble1978 , forgive my ignorance, but what does daily driving or parking outside have to do with charging the 12V?

Does the Leaf have solar panels for 12V charging or something akin to an alternator?

Just a guess, but the implication I got from reading OP was the Nissan telematics phones-home a lot and uses a lot of power. In a garage, cellular signal is more likely to be attenuated and the cellular transmitter would need to increase power to communicate with the tower.

Just a guess, however.

Overall, just a bad design from Nissan.

I would expect Rivian to support a graceful handoff between Cellular and WiFi, so parking in a garage should actually incur lower power draw for telematics, I would think.

 

[timesinks]

Our Volt shares this design flaw. The 12V converter only switches on when the vehicle is "running". Meaning the J1772 charging does not keep the 12V battery topped off.

Yeah, discovering we needed to "jumpstart" our vehicle that had been plugged in to wall power for a few weeks was a lovely time.

 

[Bumble1978]

@Bumble1978 , forgive my ignorance, but what does daily driving or parking outside have to do with charging the 12V?

Does the Leaf have solar panels for 12V charging or something akin to an alternator?

Yep just above the rear 'spoiler' for charging 12V stuff.

 

[Bumble1978]

Just a guess, but the implication I got from reading OP was the Nissan telematics phones-home a lot and uses a lot of power. In a garage, cellular signal is more likely to be attenuated and the cellular transmitter would need to increase power to communicate with the tower.

Just a guess, however.

Overall, just a bad design from Nissan.

I would expect Rivian to support a graceful handoff between Cellular and WiFi, so parking in a garage should actually incur lower power draw for telematics, I would think.

Yep, if I could use my Garage WAP it'd probably draw less juice, and might get a few more days before it goes flat But...2011 so.... lol

 

[Mjhirsch78]

Lithium ion 12v a possible solution here for our Rivians?

 

[srwaxalot]

My Niro plug-in and many others, have a similar issue. There is some form of battery drain the affects some of them. If I don’t drive my car for a few days it will drain the 12v battery. The ev battery will charge the 12v costing it a few miles of range and a message to pop up saying take it to get serviced. I took it to two different Kia dealers to be looked at and both told me it was normal and I must keep the car plugged in or drive it every day. I was very annoyed when the service tech told me all car will drain the 12v battery in a few days if not used. Guess I got lucky with my WRX and Toyota tuck, both sit for weeks/months without use and not kill the battery.

 

[Bumble1978]

Lithium ion 12v a possible solution here for our Rivians?

Have YellowTop's gone LiOn yet?

 

[Bumble1978]

My Niro plug-in and many others, have a similar issue. There is some form of battery drain the affects some of them. If I don’t drive my car for a few days it will drain the 12v battery. The ev battery will charge the 12v costing it a few miles of range and a message to pop up saying take it to get serviced. I took it to two different Kia dealers to be looked at and both told me it was normal and I must keep the car plugged in or drive it every day. I was very annoyed when the service tech told me all car will drain the 12v battery in a few days if not used. Guess I got lucky with my WRX and Toyota tuck, both sit for weeks/months without use and not kill the battery.

What model years are your Subie and Yota?

 

[DucRider]

Any vehicle (no matter the power train) you can connect to with an app or any other means needs to be "awake" enough to hear you when you call. This takes 12V power.

EV's tend to have smaller 12v batteries since they don't have an engine to crank, and even small loads can drain them.
An EV (or PHEV) that is plugged into charge should charge the 12v if needed - not all do. One would also hope that they will monitor the 12v and charge from the HV battery under most conditions. Losing a few miles of range from the HV is preferable to not being able to drive at all due to a dead 12V.

 

[electruck]

FWIW... Rivian CS has reported on several occasions that the R1 will not have a 12V battery. We'll know for sure after deliveries begin.

EDIT: since folks are still reading this for the first time, 12V battery accessible through the frunk has now been confirmed.

 

[srwaxalot]

What model years are your Subie and Yota?

02 WRX, second owner bought it in 05. 81 2x4 Yota, used to be the General Tires prerunner, got it in HS for nothing. Take it to the desert once or twice a year to smash, can not kill the thing.

 

[Bumble1978]

02 WRX, second owner bought it in 05. 81 2x4 Yota, used to be the General Tires prerunner, got it in HS for nothing. Take it to the desert once or twice a year to smash, can not kill the thing.

The first vehicle to officially scare the crap out of me was a stock 05 STi. Then again I was used to my 04 Yota Matrix XRS at the time, the STi having more than double the HP and Symmetrical AWD? Duh, no brainer.

12V Battery Drain in an ICE car though...yeah maybe if your aftermarket AMP and whatnot were not wired correctly or something.

This is why I'm trying to wrap my head around the sheer force that 500+ HP and Tq in the R1T and S because does anything over 250+ HP and TQ really matter. I mean yes, of course it does...but you know what I mean. lol

You should 2JZ swap that Yota! Guessing it's the same gen-ish of that HiLux TopGear dropped from a crane and it still started!

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